Thanksgiving Homecoming for Jerry the Cat

Just in time for Thanksgiving, Jerry the Cat has been reunited with his family in Wade, North Carolina. He'd been missing since Father's Day, when the car in which he was riding with Rachel and Jonathan Dennington and their beagle, Daisy, was struck by an oncoming car. Jonathan was unconscious for three weeks, and hospitalized for six. Rachel was hospitalized for 4-1/2 months.

Sometime this summer, Sylvia Mintz, who lives not far from the site of the crash, noticed a stray cat hanging around and stealing her cat, Chloe's, food. Mintz says she discouraged the big ginger cat from sticking around, and that he settled into a habit of running and hiding when she appeared. But last week, Jerry didn't run away.

It was just sitting on the porch and it just kind of let out this long meow, like it was trying to tell me something, Mintz said.

So she engaged the help of Bill Kirby, a columnist for the Fayetteville Observer, and the two of them tracked down the Denningtons, who have been living with Jonathans parents since the accident. They reunited the Denningtons with Jerry on Saturday.

I bawled, Rachel Dennington said. They let me pull him out of the cat carrier and I just cried.

The Denningtons are hopeful that their beagle Daisy has found a loving home. Our pets were never just pets, Rachel Dennington said. They have personalities. Theyre loved.

It's a purrfect Thanksgiving story. Why not grab a box of Kleenex and watch the news video from WRAL?